Pantherophis emoryi
The Great Plains Rat Snake (Pantherophis emoryi) is a species of non-venomous rat snake native to the eastern two thirds of the United States, from New Jersey to Nebraska, to Colorado, south to Texas, and into northern Mexico. It is sometimes considered a subspecies of the corn snake, which is commonly kept as a pet. The two are sometimes interbred to produce varying pattern and color morphs. The epithet emoryi is in honor of Brigadier General William Hemsley Emory, who was chief surveyor of the U.S. Boundary Survey team of 1852 and collected specimens for the Smithsonian Institution. As such, it is sometimes referred to as Emory's Rat Snake. Description The Great Plains Rat Snake is typically light gray or tan in color, with dark gray, brown, or green-gray blotching down its back, and stripes on either side of the head which meet to form a point between the eyes. They are capable of growing from 3 feet to 5 feet long. Behavior Great Plains Rat Snakes prefer open grassland or lightly forested habitats, but are also found on coastal plains, semi-arid regions, as well as rocky, moderately mountainous regions. They can often be found on farmland, which often leads it to be erroneously called the chicken snake, and other areas with a relatively high rodent population, which is their primary diet. They will also eat birds, and occasionally snakes, lizards and frogs, all of which they subdue by constriction. They are primarily nocturnal, and oviparous, laying clutches of as many as 25 eggs in the late spring. Like most rat snakes, when agitated, the Great Plains Rat Snake will shake its tail vigorously, which by itself makes no noise, but when it shakes amongst dry leaf litter, it can sound remarkably like a rattlesnake, and often leads to misidentification. Taxonomy This species has undergone extensive reclassification since it was first described by Spencer Fullerton Baird and Charles Frédéric Girard in 1853 as Scotophis emoryi. It has often been placed in the genus Elaphe, but recent phylogenetic analyses have resulted in its transfer to Pantherophis''Utiger, U., N. Helfenberger, B. Schätti, C. Schmidt, M. Ruf, and V. Ziswiler, 2002. ''Molecular Systematics and Phylogeny of Old and New World ratsnakes, ''Elaphe Auct., and related genera (Reptilia, Squamata, Colubridae). Russian Journal of Herpetology 9(2): 105-124.Burbrink, F. T. and R. Lawson, 2007. ''How and when did Old World ratsnakes disperse into the New World? Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 43: 173-189.Pyron, R. A. and F. T. Burbrink, 2009. Neogene diversification and taxonomic stability in the snake tribe Lampropeltini (Serpentes: Colubridae) Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 52: 524-529.. Pantherophis emoryi has been elevated to full species status and downgraded to a subspecies of Pantherophis guttatus multiple times. Most recently, Burbrink suggested that Pantherophis guttatus be split into three species: Pantherophis guttatus, Pantherophis emoryi and Pantherophis slowinskii''Burbrink, F. T., 2002. ''Phylogeographic analysis of the corn snake (''Elaphe guttata) complex as inferred from maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses''. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 25: 465-476.. References *[http://www.zo.utexas.edu/research/txherps/snakes/elaphe.emoryi.html Herps of Texas: Elaphe emoryi] * *Utah's Hogle Zoo: The Great Plains Rat Snake External links *Great Plains Rat Snake in captivity *Rat Snakes of North America: Great Plains Rat Snake Category:Colubrids Category:Reptiles of the United States Category:Fauna of the Plains-Midwest (United States) Category:Great Plains Category:Fauna of the Eastern United States